Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Many people choose to drink coffee in order to get that caffeine boost to start their day or keep them awake throughout the day. However, many prefer to stay away from the caffeine due to pregnancy, medical conditions or struggles with insomnia. For these coffee drinkers they still want the flavor and experience of coffee without worrying about caffeine.
At Silver Bridge Coffee, we work hard to bring you the best cup of decaffeinated coffee available on the market today. Let’s explore the world of decaf together.
How much caffeine is in decaffeinated coffee?
Even decaffeinated coffee has some caffeine. In order for coffee to be labeled decaffeinated in the United States, it must have 97% of the caffeine removed.
To put this into perspective, a 12 oz cup of regular coffee contains 180mg of caffeine, but a 12 oz cup of decaffeinated coffee contains only 5.4mg of caffeine. Most of the decaffeination processes today remove 99% of the caffeine from coffee so often there is even less caffeine in a cup of decaf coffee you consume.
How is coffee decaffeinated?
All coffee is decaffeinated in the green state or before it is roasted. At the present time there is no genetic way to remove the caffeine from the coffee so it must be decaffeinated after it is harvested and processed.
There are three basic ways to decaffeinate coffee:
• Ethyl Acetate (E.A.)
This method uses a combination of methylene chloride, ethyl acetate and
water to create a solvent that extracts the caffeine. Neither chemical is
found in coffee as they evaporate.
• Mountain Water Process (MWP)
This is the most organic method of extracting caffeine through water. It
uses osmosis to remove 99% of caffeine
• Methylene Chloride (MC)
Uses Carbon dioxide to remove caffeine found in coffee.
So how does the water process remove the caffeine?
It begins by soaking coffee beans in hot water. The caffeine and flavor compounds are released into the water. The water is poured through a special filter that captures the caffeine but allows the flavor compounds and oils to pass through.
Consequently, we end up with caffeine, flavorless coffee beans and a caffeine free flavor charged water. The flavorless beans are discarded, and new coffee beans are introduced to the flavor rich water. Since the water is already filled with the flavors in the coffee only the caffeine leaches out into the water. The result is a decaffeination process that is natural and allows for a flavor rich caffeine free coffee.
At Silver Bridge Coffee we want you to enjoy the best decaffeinated coffee so we source water processed decaf for our single origin decaffeinated coffee and our flavored decaffeinated coffee.
We offer decaf in ground, whole bean, flavored and single serve for your Keurig style brewer.
Our flavored decaf is truly superior toother flavored decaf coffee available on market today. We use a natural, solvent free flavor after the decaf is roasted. We still use our water processed decaf for our flavored coffee. The result is hands down the best flavored decaf coffee on the market today.
We also package our flavored decaf in single serve kups for your Keurig style brewer. Finding flavored decaf that you can use as K-cups is not easy, but we offer a wide variety of flavored decafs.
Silver Bridge Coffee offers many flavors including seasonal flavors such as pumpkin spice decaffeinated coffee, our every popular Snow Angel decaf and year round flavors like Jamaican Me Crazy decaf and Highlander Grogg decaf.
If you prefer to drink coffee without flavor we highly recommend our dark roast Sumatra Decaf or our medium roast Colombian Decaf. At Silver Bridge Coffee we work hard to bring you the best decaf coffee so you only lose the caffeine not the flavor and joy of your morning cup of coffee.
This article was written by Lorraine Walker, Owner of Silver Bridge Coffee, and an expert in decaf coffee and all things coffee related.